774 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 20, 1911. 
About eleven o’clock the flight slowed down 
—it usually does and holds slow until three 
p. m. I pulled out my lunch, and while eating, 
noticed a small speck in the sky. It grew 
larger and came down slowly toward the de¬ 
coys. It must have been 120 feet up when I 
fired. It came straight down and landed at the 
foot of the blind. I simply reached out for it 
and found I had killed a dowitch. It was the 
last dowitch I killed; in fact, it was the last I 
ever got the chance to kill. A dowitch is rather 
a pretty bird, with his red breast and a back 
that seems like a combination between the back 
of a woodcock and that of an English (Wilson) 
snipe. It is a peculiar bird; it seems to lose 
sight of the gunner when it sees decoys. I once 
knew a market hunter who, when nine dowitches 
alighted in his pond, got up deliberately and 
circled his pond until the birds huddled into a 
compact mass, then opened with an 8-gauge 
and gobbled them all at the first discharge. 
These men were dangerous not only to the 
game, but to other legitimate sportsmen, and 
we kept them away from our grounds all we 
could. 
I got more yellowlegs that day, and just at 
sunset added three willets to the bunch. The 
scull home, the walk to the house and the din¬ 
ner mother gave me when I arrived were things 
long to be remembered. Often during the long 
winter nights do I think of these days and live 
them over again and again. Such life taught 
self-sufficiency. I am thankful that I lived to 
know a phase of life that is vouchsafed to few. 
The shoulder breadth, the erect, alert carriage; 
the muscular arms, browned by exposure, come 
to me now in visions, and I thank nature for 
casting my lot where she did. 
It is pleasant to say, “I have seen and there¬ 
fore I know!” What a satisfaction to look back 
and know that “we have seen!” It moulded 
our character and made men of us. 
Daily I meet little chaps on the street who 
can tell almost anything about an automobile 
or the latest thing on the theater bill boards, 
but not one who can tell what those birds are, 
which, from five in the afternoon till almost 
daylight, are flying over the city calling “peent” 
so sharply and dashing earthward every little 
while; yet any boy who has seen will tell you 
at once that they are bullbats or nighthawks. 
And yet, the city boy is not to be censured; 
he has not had the chance. I say, give the boy 
a chance; give the girls a chance. Because 
nature intended them to perform less arduous 
labors, it does not follow that they must pet- 
force be cut off from these pleasures. Let the 
girl be a clean-minded tomboy while she may, 
for all too soon her added years will bring their 
cares and troubles. Close association with 
nature produces cleaner minded boys and girls. 
One reason is because of the lesser opportuni¬ 
ties for contamination. Such women mothered 
the men who made this country what it is and 
have offspring who inherit these same likes and 
dislikes, thus tending to keep alive that in¬ 
definable something which produces the men 
who do things—men to be relied upon in times 
of need. The hunter spirit is the warrior spirit. 
The narrow shouldered, pale-faced, old-look¬ 
ing young men one frequently meets in the city 
are rarely the product of the woods and fields. 
The city boy should have a chance: the country 
boy makes his, because it is right under his 
nose. Sometimes a thrashing follows his 
“chance making,” but the memory of that is not 
half as lasting as what went before. I was 
fortunate in that my father had guns of his 
own, and then he knew. Let the city boy get 
out with a country cousin and it is surprising 
how quickly he “catches on.” This goes to 
show that the instinct is there; it simply re¬ 
quires opportunity and quickening. 
Give him a show. From the time of the 
French and Indian war to this writing, the issue 
of our family all tended to the male side, but in 
the present instance that order is reversed and 
my family consists entirely of girls—I never 
lived with so many women around me in all my 
life, but it is fine, only they spoil the old man, 
I’m afraid. Long before they could walk or 
talk they knew the difference between a fly- 
rod and a driving whip, and click reels played 
music a great part of the time. Hackamore. 
New York Legislature. 
Albany, N. Y., May 15 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Assembly has passed these bills: 
Assemblyman C. W. Phillips’ bill relating to 
taking pheasants; also Assemblyman Patrie’s, in 
relation to the taking of suckers in certain waters 
of Greene and Schoharie counties. 
Assemblyman Evans’, relating to the open sea¬ 
son for deer in the town of Neversink, Sullivan 
county. 
Assemblyman Evans’, relating to eel weirs in 
the Delaware River. 
Assemblyman Hoyt’s, relating to driving fish 
in Dutchess county, and to nets in the Hudson 
and Delaware rivers. 
Assemblyman Pierce’s, in relation to spearing 
fish in Silver Lake. 
Assemblyman Evans’, relating to skunk farms. 
Assemblyman Gurnett’s, relating to the open 
season for trout in Seneca and Keuka lakes. 
Assemblyman Pierce’s, relating to the taking 
of hares and rabbits in Wyoming county. 
Assemblyman Shortt's, relating to the open 
season for hares and rabbits in Richmond county. 
Assemblyman Wende’s, relating to lake trout 
and whitefish. 
The Senate passed : 
Assemblyman Manley’s, relating to the open 
season for trout in Oneida county. 
Senator Roosevelt’s, relating to taking quail in 
Ulster and Dutchess counties. 
Assemblyman Bridenbecker, of Herkimer, has 
introduced a bill amending Section 104, reducing 
from $20 to $10 the fee, in addition to the clerk’s 
fee of fifty cents for non-resident hunting licenses. 
1 he bill was put in by request. 
Assemblyman Gurnett, of Schuyler, has intro¬ 
duced these bills: 
To provide each person procuring a hunting 
license with a copy of the forest, fish and game 
law as amended to date. The bill provides for 
the printing of sufficient additional copies of the 
law for distribution as provided in the bill. 
Increasing from 30,000 to 67,000 the number 
of copies of the compilation of the forest, fish 
and game law, as amended, which must be 
printed after the adjournment of each Legisla¬ 
ture. It increases from 100 to 400 the number 
of copies to each Senator and from fifty to two 
hundred the number to each Assemblyman. 
The Assembly has passed the bill of Sena¬ 
tor Emerson, relative to fishing through the ice 
in Lake George. 
Opossum Farming in Australia. 
We have been hearing of fur farms now for 
lo these many years, but a good share of what 
we hear is rather general, and consists of in¬ 
struction by people who have never managed a 
fur farm of how to raise furs for profit. 
Lately this subject has been taken up in Aus¬ 
tralia where, owing to trapping and to destruc¬ 
tion by poisons intended for rabbits, the opos¬ 
sums are growing scarce, and in some sections 
are approaching extinction. It is said that in dis- 
dricts where opossums are most abundant, men 
by trapping and hunting can often earn as much 
as $200 a month during the winter—say for five 
months of the year. It is, of course, understood 
that the Australian opossums are very different 
from the American animal; they are of many 
sorts and produce valuable fur. 
A. S. Le Souef, Director of the Zoological 
Gardens at Sydney, has contributed to the last 
number of the Agricultural Gazette of New 
South Wales—a government publication—an in¬ 
teresting article on the possibilities of opossum 
farming. 
He believes that every eucalyptus tree on 
Australian farms can be made productive by 
providing food for opossums, and that for every 
good sized gum or eucalyptus tree the income 
of the farm might be increased by about fifty 
cents. He suggests that small boxes, each large 
enough to hold one animal, might be p’aced in 
the trees in accessible positions, that the opos¬ 
sums would use these to sleep in during the day 
time—for they are nocturnal animals—and that 
they could be caught and examined during the 
day in the boxes. 
It would not be necessary to fence in the ani¬ 
mals on ordinary farms, but if this were found 
to be necessary, an inexpensive three-foot tin 
fence would be enough. Certain details are given 
by the author in the following language: 
The recent rise in the price of furs has 
brought into prominence various Australian ani¬ 
mals which have skins suitable for ornamental 
muffs, stoles and rugs. The best of these are 
the Tasmanian wallaby, the rock wallaby of New 
South Wales, the black and white variety of the 
native cat, and the two larger species of the 
opossum. The opossums are by far the most 
important, for not only do they carry the most 
valuable fur, but they feed on the leaves of the 
eucalyptus tree, and so are not detrimental to 
man’s interest, as meat or grass-feeding animals 
are. The two kinds are easily distinguished by 
their ears, the silver-gray or common opossum 
having long ears, while the mountain or black 
opossum has short ears. The former is dis¬ 
tributed all over Australia and Tasmania, being 
generally found in the plain countrjq while the 
short-eared opossum is found on the highlands 
of Eastern Australia and on the islands of Bass 
Straits. It is the larger of the two and has the 
most valuable skin. 
Opossums mate about April, and one young 
one is brought forth about June. They mature 
in twelve months and will breed the first year. 
Their principal food is the eucalyptus tree, but 
they will also eat the leaves of many other trees, 
shrubs and plants. They lie up during the day 
in holes in the trees and also in logs and come 
out to feed at night. 
Great variations occur in the color and tex¬ 
ture of the fur, ranging from black to light gray 
